No infrastructure project safe from the axe, says Coalition

Coalition frontbenchers have attacked Labor’s new wide-sweeping infrastructure review amid concern that no project will be ‘safe from the axe’.

Infrastructure and Transport Minister Catherine King. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Coalition frontbenchers have ­attacked Labor’s new wide-sweeping review of the nation’s $120bn infrastructure pipeline amid concern it will rip funding out of the regions and that no project will be “safe from the axe”.

The warnings come after Infrastructure and Transport Minister Catherine King unveiled a 90-day independent review of the 10-year infrastructure pipeline, saying it blew out under successive ­Coalition governments from nearly 150 projects to nearly 800.

The make-up of the pipeline is set to change substantially, with Labor claiming that the Coalition used the infrastructure investment program as a “massive electoral pork barrel fund”.

But Nationals leader David Littleproud said Ms King was using the review as a “smokescreen” to “rip out infrastructure in regional Australia” and argued the carve-up of projects would likely exacerbate cost-of-living problems.

“This is about setting up a budget that regional Australia will pay. And just so everyone understands, everyone will pay because you might wipe the sweat off the brow, living in a capital city going that’s good because we’ll get all our urban infrastructure,” Mr Littleproud told Sky News.

Opposition infrastructure spokeswoman Bridget Mackenzie warned any cuts would be a “handbrake” on economic growth and lead to “gridlocked city streets, unsafe regional freight routes and less family time at home”.

Anthony Albanese was forced to defend the review on Monday, clarifying there would be no cuts to the total infrastructure budget, accusing the Coalition of being “obsessed with pork-barrelling”.

The Prime Minister said the ­review would include an examination of projects that had been ­allocated smaller amounts of funding than they were projected to cost.

“The National Party should never be in charge of building anything,” Mr Albanese said.

Amid rising interest rates and spiralling costs for material and ­labour, the nation’s construction peak body had serious concerns about the proposed review calling it a “major threat” to industry.

Australian Constructors Association chief executive Jon Davies said the review would result in significant cancellations and deferrals that could further destabilise businesses.

“Delivery of infrastructure is not like a tap. It can’t simply be turned on and off,” Mr Davies said.

“If projects are cut, governments must take action to reallocate a proportion of the saved funds to help industry by compensating contractors who have incurred significant additional costs without any fault of their own and currently lack contractual relief.”

Infrastructure Partnerships Australia chief executive Adrian Dwyer said he did not expect dramatic changes to the nation’s ­infrastructure pipeline but that money should be reprofiled towards projects that contributed to the economic prosperity of the country.

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham branded the review as “worrying” and “suspicious” and questioned why Labor was not planning to ­investigate projects that were promised during the election campaign.